In the nineteenth century, sketches describing the “prose of life" — humorous or tragic incidents, life in the backwoods, travels, hunting, fishing and unique places or characters — frequently appeared in Canadian magazines. Like other forms of Canadian documentary writing, the sketch seemed to fill a need to record imaginatively different aspects of life in Canada. This volume brings to light examples of this important genre, include previously uncollected pieces by such well-known writers as Archibald Lampman, Sara Jeannette Duncan, and Catharine Parr Traill.

Born in Montreal, Carole Gerson is a professor in the English Department at Simon Fraser University. Her research on Canadian literary and publishing history and on early Canadian women writers has resulted in many publications, including two books on Pauline Johnson. She was a member of the editorial team for the major three-volume project History of the Book in Canada, for which she co-edited volume 3, covering the period 1918–1980.

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Kathy Mezei is a professor in the English Department at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and specializes in Canadian Literature. She wrote Cuthbert and the Merpeople one summer while camping on Hornby Island. Every day she would take her daughter, Robin, out in a canoe, tell her an episode, and then hurry back to shore where she would quickly type it up on her portable typewriter.

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